£350k grant helps hydraulics group to enter automation

22 November, 2015

Group HES, the Gloucester-based hydraulics engineering company, is expanding into the industrial automation and motion control market with the help of a £350,000 government grant which it will match, resulting in a total investment of £700,000 over the coming three years.

It is setting up a new division called HES AutomaTec, run by Bruce Diesel, who has a background in electrical engineering and enterprise software development. The development of the new division is, in part, a response to an increasing demand from customers for turnkey systems.

AutomaTec will work closely with Branch Hydraulic Systems, the existing engineering arm of Group HES, and will supply control systems to Branch’s customers, as well as undertaking its own projects. The two technical teams will share an office, offering customers a single contract, from one supplier. HES says that customers will no longer have to compromise between controls and hydraulics suppliers, or wait for two separate suppliers to solve issues.

AutomaTec’s government grant is partly the result of a long-standing close relationship between HES and the aerospace component supplier Triumph Actuation & Motion Control Systems, which has itself won a £1.8m grant to help build a new factory in Gloucestershire.

Diesel: driving the new division

Bruce Diesel says that although the hydraulics and aerospace sectors will be key markets for the new division, it will also offer its automation and motion control services to other sectors. He expects the division to be employing about ten people within three years, depending on its rate of growth. He is hoping for a turnover of at least £1m within this timescale.

HES AutomaTec is the fifth division of Group HES, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.